Alliance against the BNRR Birmingham Friends of the Earth West Midlands Transport Campaign

West Midlands Friends of the Earth Press Release: 17th May 2003

Walking all the way to the Tolls?

On the revelation that certain aspects of the M6 toll road will require primary legislation and full public consultation in order to allow toll booth operators to access the toll booths [1]; West Midlands Friends of the Earth called upon the government to open up the concession agreement to the public [2].

Chris Crean of West Midlands Friends of the Earth said:

"That issues such as these did not come up at the public inquiry is beyond belief. The people of the West Midlands have been conned every step of the way in the development of this road. We now have an opportunity, once again, to get the highly secretive concession agreement between Midland Expressway Ltd. and the Government into the public domain. It is the right of those whose lives this road has, and will be, ruined to see just exactly how they have been stitched up by this process. It is also incumbent upon the government that there is never such a shoddy deal over a piece of our transport infrastructure ever again."

Editor's Notes

[1] Birmingham Post May 17 2003http://icbirmingham.icnetwork.co.uk/0100news/0100localnews/ and search for 'M6 Toll walks into legal trouble'. Full article below:

M6 Toll walks into legal trouble
By Campbell Docherty, Birmingham Post

M6 Toll workers will be breaking the law just by walking to their collection booths, unless officials can push through new legislation before Britain's first pay-to-drive motorway opens.

A legal oversight when the £485 million 27-mile toll road was first classified as a motorway means it is illegal for any pedestrian to set foot on the tarmac.

This would include employees walking to the toll booths, motorists who have to get out of left-hand drive vehicles to pay or who drop their change on the carriageway and leave their vehicle to pick it up.

Opponents of the road condemned the latest in a series of "absurdities" which has left bosses at Midland Expressway Ltd - the private company set up to run the road - and the Highways Agency hastily drawing up new legislation for parliamentary approval.

However, The Birmingham Post can reveal the draft has not yet reached Ministers at the Department for Transport and must still go through a period of consultation.

It will also need to be squeezed into the busy legislative programme in Parliament before the road's scheduled opening in January.

Sources close to the 23-year project said the problem was noticed last November but administrative delays between the Highways Agency and MEL meant work did not begin until recently on drafting new regulations.

Staffordshire Labour MP Dr Tony Wright (Cannock Chase), who gave evidence against the M6 Toll - formerly known as the Birmingham Northern Relief Road - at the public inquiry in the mid-1990s, last night said the legal oversight was "unbelievable".

"There have been so many absurdities with this road and just when you think you have seen them all, here is another one," he said.

"I have been distressed by the whole process of building the M6 Toll for some time.

"It would have been running by now but the last Conservative Government decided to stop the process and make it a privately run scheme.

"A purely public project would not have forgotten to make the correct arrangements for the toll operators.

"I think most people think if we are going to have a toll road, let's build it ourselves without involving a private company."

A spokesman for the M6 Toll said: "Midland Expressway, the Highways Agency and the Department for Transport have agreed draft regulations to allow the safe operation of toll booths on the M6 Toll.

"These regulations have been drawn up in accordance with existing legislation and after consultation with statutory bodies will be presented to Parliament.

"This process will not delay the opening of the road in January 2004."

Last Thursday a senior director of MEL's parent company resigned after remarks he made about the road charges sparked fury.

The resignation of Dennis Eagar, from the Australian company Macquarie Group, coincided with hauliers threatening to boycott the road after it was announced lorries would be charged £11 to use it, more than twice the level theyexpected.

Charges on the M6 Toll, which runs from Coleshill to Cannock, will cost £3 for cars, £6 for vans and £11 for lorries.

The road aims to alleviate pressure on the West Midlands stretch of the M6, which is among the most congested in Europe.

The M6 was designed to accommodate no more then 72,000 vehicles per day but now carries up to 160,000 a day at an average speed of 17 mph between junctions 4 and 11, where the new toll road begins and ends.

Advocates of the road believe the M6 Toll could save 45 minutes on a rush hour journey.

[2] The government of the late 1980's signed a highly secretive concession agreement with Midlands Expressway Limited (MEL) to build and operate the M6 Toll for 53 years. Not even the inspector at the longest public inquiry into a road scheme ever in the UK was able to see this agreement.